My friend furrbear has been blogging about his friend and neighbor Cecil Sinclair, a Navy vet who died recently and the ensuing horror laid down by a megachurch that cancelled his funeral/memorial service because he was a gay man. It's all over the news now (MSNBC , Yahoo, Alternet), and it's sickening. And typical in speaking to the root of how completely heartless these motherfuckers are.

This is why I hate religion, people - because of the bullshit it creates in dividing people, especially when that division kicks people down in a time of serious need. What if this had happened to someone YOU know and love? When is enough enough?

Read furrbear's posts, including the post from Cecil's partner Paul and imagine being him right now. Imagine being part of this family, this community.

Link to this post or write up your own, please - and talk to people about this situation. They helped send this great man to his grave with a broken heart and a projected shame that was never his to begin with, and it is intolerable. Make sure people know about this. The more people who know, maybe the more will turn their backs away from these people and stop financing them, and turn towards the people in their community who need them most.

So, my partner's daughter is a Christian, of course. 20 years old, very idealistic, blah, blah. She goes to this church in Seattle and her pastor is this guy named Eugene. Evidentally, there was a big hoopla about the church being "Welcoming, but not affirming" to gay and lesbian people. WTF does that mean? My partner's daughter has become quite the gay activist and made several commments to this pastor's blog: http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2007/06/28/eugene-dan-savage-and-the-gay-conversation/

The responses to this were remarkable.

Here is my partner's daughter's response that kind of blew us away:

As a Quest member as well as daughter of a gay parent–I will share a couple thoughts:

I believe there is a deep need to respect the unimaginable heartache the Christian Right has caused among the gay community thus far. Regardless of WHAT we (individually) believe on the issue–we have to recognize that, as followers of Jesus, we have royally screwed up in loving the lgbt community.

We need to apologize. over, and over, and over again.

We need to speak LOUDLY against those who are responsible for the degradation of the lgbt community, both socially, spiritually, and politically.

As Christians, it is not enough to simply welcome discussion with the lgbt community–I think we tend to make the mistake of patting ourselves on the back for being willing to engage in dialog. The hope of engaging in conversation with people who have been so deeply hurt, for so long is–in my belief–asking for too much, at this point. Though, if the lgbt community has enough grace towards a group (Christians) whom have caused them so much pain–that they would be willing to engage in such conversation–then, well,maybe we ought to take a lesson from them on what it means to show love and grace.

When I read the article my response at first was, I can't believe this, I can't believe these people would put this family through more grief, but really, unfortunately, I can believe, it isn't surprising. Religion has become a complete joke, an excuse for the unexcusable. It makes me sick.